Some men might be ready for the fight, but what good is that if God’s people have no food?
Imagine the scene. The Israelites have been hiding in dens and caves, fearful of the Midianites who looked to steal every grain of their crops. Gideon, youngest son of “Joash the Abiezrite” (Jdg 6:11), is surreptitiously threshing some wheat in a winepress up in the hills. Unnoticed at first, “the Angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth tree,” observing all he was doing. As the story continues, we realize it is the Lord Himself (see v 14). Then suddenly “the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, ‘The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!’” (v 12). Notice the two propositions: that the Lord is with him, and that he is a mighty man of valor. Gideon protests the first part first: “if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about…?” (v 13). There are two simple arguments. Why all the negative and where’s all the positive? To which the Lord responds, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?” (v 14). In other words, I’m with YOU, Gideon, and you’re going to be right in the middle of My next miracle. Gideon’s second objection? Sorry, wrong address. No mighty men here. “My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house” (v 15). But the Lord replies, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites” (v 16). Gideon asks the Lord to wait, and quickly returns with an offering, which he is instructed to place on a rock. Touching it with His staff, the Lord accepts the offering, “and fire rose out of the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread” (v 21). The Lord then disappeared. Gideon was now commissioned for the challenge ahead.